Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What's Up, Doc?

Today was the day for our big doctor's appointment. I got a call yesterday afternoon that they'd bumped it up by an hour and that we now had yet another Primary Care Manager (PCM), now that I'd changed all the contact information at our other hospitals to reflect the former new PCM's name. Oh well. Anyway, the good news was that this doctor took one look at our file and scheduled us for an hour-long appointment at the end of her appointment time, so that we could take as long as we needed to go over the approximately eight billion items of paperwork I needed her to fill out.

The appointment went well; she seemed pretty on top of things and I think she'll be a good doctor for Connor. We spent almost two hours in the room with her-- it was quite the visit.

Among other things, we renewed Connor's EFMP paperwork. EFMP, or the Exceptional Family Member Program for those of you not familiar with it, is the military's program that identifies family members with special needs and assures that not only do they get the services and accommodations they require, but that they can't be sent to a post that doesn't have these services available. While Jer (obviously) can still deploy, go on an unaccompanied tour, or be sent to a post for training that lacks the services we need, he can't be issued a permanent change of station (PCS: where we're expected to go with him) that doesn't have the doctors and therapies Connor needs. Now, since Connor needs A LOT of doctors and therapies (last time I counted we had around fourteen) there are very, very few posts we can go to. What this means is that it's likely that unlike most army families, which seem to move around every three years or so, we'll probably be in the Pacific Northwest for quite some time. Given the fact that instead of taking things off Connor's EFMP paperwork we actually added them, I don't think this is going to change any time soon.

After Connor's appointment and a quick visit with a friend who just had her little girl, we headed back to the house and spent a solid forty-five minutes playing with Connor's new tricycle! He had a great time; we must have gone around the apartment about twenty times. I would have stopped sooner as it was obvious he was getting tired, but he was asking for more so adamantly that I humored him and we kept going until he was literally drooping on the bike. He still had a huge grin on his face, though! We didn't do as much standing work today as a result (there he is in his new stander eating dinner-- doesn't he look great?) because his little legs got such a workout. Maybe I need someone to strap me to a bike and push me around. I haven't exactly been motivated to exercise in the last week or so.

6 comments:

I will gladly push you where ever you need to go.Found you through Hopeful Parents and I was so struck by your story of the dreams and the bridge.I picture you wearing a super woman cape. Seriously. I do.

I am so glad things went well with the new doc. Really sounds like she was trying to cover all her bases - that is so great!

I can only imagine how excited Connor was about his tricycle. Sounds like he was pretty serious about riding it whether he fell asleep on it or not. He really does look great in his stander - it makes him look tall. I guess at some point, they just aren't babies anymore. *sigh*

Sounds like a good and reassuring day. The fact that she immediately rescheduled you for an hour, and was willing to spend even longer with you, is an excellent sign. Maybe you should get Connor a little Harley jacket so he can ride in style -- or would that scare the cats?

About The Author

I'm Connor's Mom. That pretty much explains everything. I mean, raising the epicenter of cuteness in the universe is tough, but it has its moments, all right.
I should probably mention that Connor has a submicroscopic, subtelomeric unbalanced translocation 46xy der t(1)(1;15)(q42;q26.2)-- an extremely rare chromosomal disorder. He keeps me on my toes!